MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellowships
Discover!
Applications are now open for the Natural Science Careers Workshop for Undergraduates at the Smithsonian on April 19, 2024.
Natural Science Careers Workshopnew window
Our blog chronicles Museum Seminars beginning with our 2016 cohort, as well as Fellows' accounts of trips to the museums with students beginning in 2019.
Read MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellows Blognew window
The Fellowships are the product of a unique collaboration between Montgomery College and the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology - the first of its kind between the Smithsonian Institution and a community college. The MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship Program is the signature program of the Paul Peck Humanities Institute at Montgomery College.
The program is interdisciplinary and open to faculty from all three campuses. The Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship program is a year-long commitment and is considered a part of your workload assignment; it is open to both full-time and part-time faculty. Fellows are awarded three ESH per semester, a total of six ESH for their work and participation. The Fellowship program has created new pathways for teaching and learning at Montgomery College since 1998. One former Fellow recently told us the program was for her “an innovative experience for both the fellows and their students! Education in its richest sense.”
Kay Ahmad (ELAP, GT), Evan Crump (English, RV), Gaddis Effendi (Sociology, TPSS), Sadegh Foghani (HIST, RV), Serena Gould (ELAP, TPSS), Teresa Lew (ENGL, GT), Melissa McCeney (PSYC, GT), Rebin Muhammad (MATH, GT), Ellen Olmstead (ENGL, TPSS) and Ted Shusterman (MUSC, TPSS).
Following a competitive collegewide search, The Paul Peck Humanities Institute is excited to announce Professor Matthew Decker as our new Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship (SFF) co-coordinator, alongside Professor Denise Dewhurst.
We thank the wonderful Mimi Mann for her many years of skillful and enthusiastic leadership. Mimi is enjoying a well-earned retirement.
Professor Decker is an Associate Professor of English at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus, having served the MC community for over a decade. He brings much to this new position, with wide ranging experience in professional development for faculty, building programs, professional publications and presentations, and a lauded teaching career. Professor Decker is a 2020 Outstanding Faculty Awardee, a 2023 Scholarship of Excellence in Teaching Fellow, and a 2019 Smithsonian Faculty Fellow. SFF fellows will benefit from his passion for utilizing the Smithsonian Learning Lab (the Smithsonian’s digital education space) as well as his experience leveraging physical and virtual Smithsonian exhibit spaces and artifacts in classroom learning. He also brings extensive expertise in designing and digitizing content.
Throughout his career, Decker has served as a leader. Most recently, he co-founded, launched, and fostered the Digital Storytelling Internship, which received two Innovation Grants and has supported more than 50 interns. During this time, Professor Decker has also become an internationally respected scholar in Digital Storytelling producing content published in various professional and public-facing places. He also served as an ENGL 101+ Course Coordinator, ENGL 102 Course Coordinator, and ELITE Faculty Associate.
Professor Decker earned a BA from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, an MA from American University, and a graduate certificate in Learning and Performance Technology from UMBC. To familiarize yourself more with Professor Decker’s impressive work, below are selected pieces related to his new position.
Please join me in warmly welcoming Professor Matthew Decker to the Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship leadership team!
- EdX Smithsonian Learning Lab Collection: Matthew Decker, From Identity Exploration to Impactful Issue Discovery: Using the Smithsonian’s Resources to Reinvigorate Writingnew window
- Cultivating Learning Smithsonian Learning Lab Collection: Cultivating Learning: Digital Storytelling to Foster Student Engagementnew window
- Identify Artifacts with Prompt Smithsonian Learning Lab Collection: Identity Artifacts Gallerynew window
- Digital Storytelling as Career Growth Smithsonian Learning Lab Collection: Digital Storytelling as Career Growth: How Montgomery College Designed an Internship Centered on Professional Development and Opportunitiesnew window
- Discovering Pathways for Digital Storytelling in Your Instruction Smithsonian Learning Lab Collection: Discovering Pathways for Digital Storytelling in Your Instructionnew window
- ELITE Academy for Teaching Transformation Workshop Series in DS: Academy for Teaching Transformationnew window
Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster A Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges of A Rapidly Changing World
We are excited to announce our 2023 theme, “Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that foster a hopeful future to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world”, one which offers opportunities for all areas of study. Participating faculty will learn how to teach with objects and museums, create engaging new lessons and assignments that support core content and will be integrated with live or virtual field trips to Smithsonian Institution museums. You will experiment with time-tested as well as novel pedagogical approaches to help Montgomery College students formulate their own questions, generate knowledge, and develop more sophisticated approaches to problem-solving.
- Our 2024 Smithsonian Faculty Fellows will have the opportunity to investigate the
ways museums facilitate meaningful conversations with lasting impact for students
across all disciplines. Working with museum curators and educators will show you how
museums are responding to widespread demands for increased diversity, accessibility,
and engagement that you can apply in your own classes by utilizing the power of virtual
spaces as well as physical. The goal? Empowering your students in ways that facilitate
intellectual engagement both within and beyond your class. Interested? Read more about
Teaching and Learning with the Smithsonian: Creating Classroom Conversations that Foster A Hopeful Future to Meet the Challenges
of A Rapidly Changing World (PDF,
)
Application Process
Part 1: Expression of Interest
Thinking about applying? Want to know more? Complete the brief expression of interest form by Monday, October 2, 2023. While this does not obligate you to apply, it allows us to provide additional information as you work on ideas for application.
Some Ideas How You Can Use This Year's Theme in YOUR Classroom (PDF, )
Part 2: Formal Application
This is your chance to tell us how you and your students would benefit from the Fellowship
experience!
Applications due no later than 5 pm on Monday, October 16, 2023.
Some Ideas How You Can Use This Year's Theme in YOUR Classroom (PDF, )
The Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship program is a year-long commitment and is considered a part of your workload assignment. Fellows are awarded three ESH per semester, a total of six ESH for their work.
In the spring semester, Fellows attend meetings every Thursday. These include, for example, regular business meetings at Rockville campus, the Showcase presentation at Rockville, and trips to Smithsonian museums and sites, including a panel discussion. These meetings run from 2-4:30 pm when campus-based and 2-5 PM on the six Thursdays we are visiting the museums.
In the summer there are no formal meetings scheduled. Fellows work independently to visit museums, collect information and refine plans for their fall course implementation.
In the fall semester, Fellows attend weekly business meetings at the Rockville campus or via Zoom, implement their Smithsonian project (lesson plan and museum visit) with their class, and develop materials to share with their cohort and colleagues. These meetings run from 2-4:30 PM. Fellows are a cohort of learners who share responsibility for developing the theme and applying it to the Smithsonian experience. During the year Fellows support one another, participate in exercises, share teaching resources and techniques and share leadership roles. Former Fellows report that the cohort learning environment offered by the Fellowship is remarkably rewarding!
All meetings take place on Thursday afternoons, and Fellows must plan their schedules (and allow time for travel) so that they are present at meetings (College or Smithsonian) which begin promptly at 2:00 pm Note ending times above. This is non-negotiable; do not accept work that will interfere with your full participation. Adjustments to virtual meetings will occur as conditions require. All meetings can be shifted to a virtual environment, if necessary, but please know the Fellowship will continue.
Work products developed over the year include, for example: development of a course syllabus that includes the Smithsonian lesson plan and museum visit; one or more newly designed assignments related to the lesson plan; staying current with assigned readings and tasks; developing discussion topics; writing blog post based on Fellow's museum experience with students, and preparing a final written report summarizing the Fellow’s project implementation (about 500 words), and participation in a variety of assessment activities. Additionally, all Fellows deliver a presentation of their final report at the Smithsonian Faculty Fellows’ Showcase event (typically held in February on the Rockville campus). The Showcase event will be videotaped by MCTV and will later become available on youtube.com.
PPHI welcomes applications from part-time faculty, with these stipulations. Part-time faculty who apply must have taught for Montgomery College for four academic semesters before applying AND they must have taught the course into which the Fellowship will be integrated for at least two semesters.
IMPORTANT: Part-time faculty applications must also include a Letter of Recommendation from their department chair. [Such a letter is not required by full time faculty.]
We encourage all prospective applicants to reach to us for help. Professor Mimi Mann (English, RV) is the Coordinator for the Montgomery College Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship, and Professor Denise Dewhurst (Psychology, GT) is the Co-coordinator. They are both glad to offer guidance on writing your proposal and assembling your application package and can meet in person or via zoom; it can really help! Contact Mimi or Denise early in the process but at least two-three weeks BEFORE the deadline they can give you pointers on refining your approach and polishing your draft. mimi.mann@montgomerycollege.edu; denise.dewhurst@montgomerycollege.edu
- The proposal expresses a vision of how the Fellowship theme relates to the course
- The proposal expresses a vision of how the Smithsonian experience will be implemented in the course including identifying potential artifacts, exhibits or Smithsonian museums that support the proposal
- The proposal demonstrates a willingness to be open to an innovative pedagogical response to the Fellowship
- Applicant has demonstrated contributions and/or leadership to the College community (this can be discipline, campus or college wide)
- The proposal is articulate, coherent and persuasive
- This person is likely to contribute positively to the community of Fellows
READ and WATCH!
Here are two mores ways to learn about the Fellowship!
Our blog chronicles Museum Seminars beginning with our 2016 cohort, as well as Fellows' accounts of trips to the museums with students beginning in 2019.
Read MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellows Blognew window
Please consider viewing one or more of the video recordings of MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellows presenting their final projects at our annual “Showcase” events.
We started recording these with the 2010 Cohort, and there are now nearly 100 videos with a combined viewing of over 15,000 views on YouTube. Many of these are interdisciplinary in nature, so don’t limit yourself to watching only those in your discipline!
Under Construction. While waiting, go to youtubenew window and search for Montgomery College-Smithsonian Faculty Fellows!